Return back to Ottawa & receiving my new camera - Olympus E-M1

I flew out of Vancouver on Monday night and arrived at Ottawa after midnight on Tuesday.

 

Goodbye, Richmond.

Birds saw in Richmond

Aside from working from home most of this week, I went out twice to do some bird-watching and six times to dine out.  Here are the birds we saw on Thursday (at Terra Nova) and Saturday (at Richmond Nature Park).

Terra Nova

The only Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) I saw this trip.

Getting a taste of spring in BC

While most parts of Canada are under deep snow and freezing temperatures, the west coast has been experiencing springlike conditions.  My mother and I went for a drive/walk to West Dyke Trail this morning to do some bird-watching.

View from West Dyke Trail with Snow Goose (Chen caerulescens) scattered across the land.  I took this image with my new phone (Xiaomi HM Note 1W) which has pretty good camera capability (13 megapixels).

Great Backyard Bird Count in Ottawa

I returned back to BC last night for a week off from school.  Before I went to the airport in the afternoon, I went out bird-watching with a friend for the Great Backyard Bird Count in the morning.  We actually went to Strathcona Park on Valentine's Day to scout some of the species found there (e.g., Mallards, Common Goldeneyes, Great Black-backed Gulls, Herring Gulls, etc), and then began our Monday bird count there as well.  It was quite cold on Saturday and Monday morning, so I didn't bother taking photos then.  After surveying the birds at Strathcona Park on Monday morning, we took the bus to Remic Rapids along the Ottawa River, which was my first time there.  The temperature felt warmer by then and so I started snapping some photos.

Remic Rapids and some impressive rock-balancing.